First Latina to Chair the Federal Trade Commission

The President plans to name the first Latina, Edith Ramirez Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Ramirez has served as a Commissioner of the FTC since April 5, 2010. In a statement President Obama “is grateful for her service on behalf of the American people and he looks forward to her continued work as she steps in to lead the FTC.”

Ramirez’ main role will be to protect “consumers from fraud, deception, and unfair business practices as well as maintaining competition to prevent anticompetitive mergers and business practices in the marketplace,” according to the White House statement.

Before joining the Commission in 2010, Ramirez was a partner in the Los Angeles office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, where she practiced business litigation, and successfully tried cases in intellectual property, antitrust, and unfair competition.

She was also a clerk for Hon. Alfred T. Goodwin in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1992-1993 and served as the Vice President on the Board of Commissioners for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, according to the White House press release. Ramirez graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University where she majored in history and received her J.D from Harvard Law School.